There are a number of different ways to characterize complex nanoparticulate materials, such as proteins and large aggregates of proteins. Optical microscopy is a relatively inexpensive technique that can provide a limited amount of size and shape information about cells and highly aggregated proteins. Instruments such as those that perform Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Static Light Scattering (SLS), or Size Exclusion Chromatography (SEC) can provide higher resolution information about the size of a wide variety of nanomaterials and nanoparticulates but lack the ability to deliver structural or shape information. More sophisticated instruments such as those that perform Circular Dichroism (CD), Raman spectroscopy, or Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy can provide yet molecular structural and conformational information about materials such as proteins but lack the ability to provide any direct information about the size or size distribution of those materials. The most expensive instruments such as those that perform X-ray crystallography and multidimensional Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) can provide a substantial amount of structural information about complex nanoparticulates, such as larger proteins, but these instruments can cost a million dollars or more and tend not to be particularly useful for routine measurements or for quality assurance or quality control use.
It is an object of the invention to address one or more of the above mentioned problems.